Exhibition Opening Lecture

Mark Grotjahn

May 30, 20148 pm

Nasher Members are invited to enjoy a talk with Los Angeles-based artist Mark Grotjahn, who uses essential subjects to explore textures, colors, and form with refreshing boldness and almost hallucinogenic intensity.

Best known for large, richly worked paintings that evoke aspects of contemporary discourse, Grotjahn has been working privately on sculpture for over a decade. The artist will speak in conjunction with the opening of his Nasher exhibition, the first presentation of Grotjahn's sculpture in a museum.

“Grotjahn’s pieces are unique in their own right, combining the primal with the innocent to create something almost universally relatable.” -- Sam Pape, W Magazine

Mark Grotjahn Biography

Mark Grotjahn was born in 1968 in Pasadena, California, and currently lives in Los Angeles. He received his MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Recent solo exhibitions include the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2005); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2006); Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (2007); Portland Art Museum (2010) and Aspen Museum of Art (2012). Group exhibitions include 2006 Whitney Biennial, New York; the 54th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2004); Whitney Biennial, New York (2006);“Painting in Tongues,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2006); “Oranges and Sardines,” the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2008). His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Cleveland Museum of Art; Des Moines Art Center; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.;Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Tate Modern , London.

Support for this lecture is underwritten in part by Sylvia Hougland, in honor of her husband, Curtis Hougland.